Carbon holder



Jan.13, 1942. .F KLA M; 12,269,771

CARBON HOLDER Filed Feb. 7, 1941 Patented Jan. 13, 1942 CARBON HOLDER Clarence F. Klamm, St. Louis, Mo., assignor to Harvey H. Goldman, St. Louis, Mo.

Application February 7, 1941, Serial No. 377,866

v(Cl. 176-119) 3 Claims.

This invention relates to carbon holders, and with regard to certain more specific features, to such holders for use in arc lamps and the like.

Among the several objects of the invention may be noted the provision of a carbon holder of a device of the class described which presents minimum obstruction in the lamp in which it is incorporated; and the provision of a device of the class described into which carbons may be easily removed and inserted and which is economical to make. Other objects will be in part obvious and in part pointed out hereinafter.

The invention accordingly comprises the elements and combinations of elements, features of construction, and arrangements of parts which will be exemplified in the structures hereinafter described, and the scope of the application of which will be indicated in the following claims.

In the accompanying drawing, in which is illustrated one of various possible embodiments of the invention,

Fig. 1 is a side elevation illustrating a pair of feeding units to which the invention is applied, and showing a pair of carbons in advanced positions;

Fig. 2 is a horizontal section on an enlarged scale, taken on line 22 of Fig. 1;

Fig. 3 is a vertical section taken on line 3--3 of Fig. 2;

Fig. 4 is a vertical section taken on line 4-4 of Fig.

Fig. 5 is a vertical section taken on line 5-5 of Fig. 2;

Fig. 6 is a vertical section taken on line 6-6 of Fig. 2;

Fig. '7 is an enlarged side elevation showing in solid lines an applied length of carbon, and in dotted lines the manner in which said carbon is removed or inserted;

Fig. 8 is a fragmentary view of certain parts of Fig. 1 showing a pair of carbons in retracted position; and,

Fig. 9 is a fragmentary section taken on line 99 of Fig. 3, but eliminating the support, the view being also of Fig. '7 at an angle from bottom.

Similar reference characters indicate corresponding parts throughout the several views of the drawing.

Referring now more particularly to Fig. 1,

there is shown at numeral a stationary guide on which is a slide 3 carrying a bracket 5 for pivotally supporting at 1 a conducting clamp 9. The clamp 3 has an upper stationary jaw [I (Fig. 4), and a lower movable jaw I3 which is notched as shown at I5. Jaw I3 is under vertical control of a clamp screw II. A handle I3 is used for rotating the clamp screw l1 and a line terminal 20 is provided for connecting the clamp 9 with a flexible wire 2|.

A known automatic feed moves the carriage 3 to the left on guide I. It may also be moved manually after declutching it from said feed by means of a clutch lever 23. Since the construc tion for the automatic feed and the clutch are known and form no part of the present invention per se, they have not been further shown.

Carried on the front end of the support is a hollow chute 25 for receiving waste material which spatters from the carbon at the light sources. Behind this chute 25 and also fixed on the support is a prop 21 which has a V-shaped notch in its end as indicated at 29.

It is the purpose of the prop 21 to support in its notch 29 the larger of a pair of carbons, numbered 3|. This is a positive carbon and is held in one of the holders 33, which form the subject of this invention per se. The holder 33 is held in the clamp 9 and is therefore movable along with the carbon 3| in accordance with the movement of the members 3, 5 and 9. During its movement the carbon 3| rests in the V-notch 29 at the end of the prop 21 due to the weight of its counterclockwise overhang with respect to the center I (Fig. 3). As shown at 35 in Fig. 3, the carbon 3| is copper clad.

A second and negative carbon 31 is arranged coaxially with the carbon 3| and slides in a V- shaped bracket 39. Bracket 39, like the prop 21, is stationary. It carries a notch 4| (Fig. 5) and is rigidly fastened to stationary frame parts 43. The carbon 39, like the carbon 3|, is copper clad, as indicated at 35 in Fig. 5.

Slidable with respect to the fixed bracket 39 is a carriage 45 which is held in alignment by guides 41 and pressed upward by means of a spring 49. This carriage 45 has rack teeth 5| on its upper edge which mesh with the teeth of a pinion 53 on a control shaft 55 carried on frame 43. The spring 48 presses the rack 5| toward pinion 53, and since the spring 49 is to the left of the pinion, it tends also to rock the carriage clockwise. Some lost motion between the carriage 45 and the bracket 39 permits of the desired angular motion. The fact that the carbon brackets 29 or II, as the case may be.

31 rests in the groove 4| of the bracket 39 limits clockwise angular motion under pressure from spring 49 to a point such as shown in Figs. 1 and 8. The control shaft 55, through suitable automatic means operating through a clutch 51, feeds the carriage 45 to the right, as required. The shaft 55 may also be manually rotated to feed the carriage back and forth for starting purposes. Since these feed parts are also known, further details will not be given.

In order to clamp a carbon to the carriage 45, a second holder 59 is employed which is held in a clamp 62. The holder 59 consists of a circular shank 6| (Figs. 2 and 6), the rear end of which has a flat bottom 63 (Fig. 6). Thi shank is clamped against a stationary lower jaw 65 of the carriage 45 by means of an eccentric Bl carried on a shaft 69. The shaft 69 has one bearing in a bracket H and another in a bracket 12. The shaft is provided with a handle 16 by means of which it may be rotated to move the eccentric 61 into wedging engagement with the rear portion of the holder 59.

The other holder 33 also has a cylindric shank at 15 (Fig. 4) with a flat seat 11. Thus it may be held by the V-notch in the jaw l3.

Both holders 33 and 59 have socket portions indicated generally at 19. These portions are each different in size to accommodate different carbon diameters, but their general forms are similar. Only one will be described, similar reference characters being applied to the other.

Referring to Figs. 7 and 9, a socket portion 19 consists of an incomplete arcuate hood portion 8| which provides a recess for receiving the upper curved surface of the rear end of a carbon. At 83 is a small finger or holder which provides a fulcrum. The finger portion 83 is shorter than the hood portion 8|, and between it and the end of the hood are formed clearance openings 85. This construction permits of the angular insertion of the end of the carbon, as indicated by the dotted lines in Fig. '7. The carbon may then be rotated into position under the hood 8!, using the finger 83 as a fulcrum. It is also intended that the sides, 81 of the hood 8| be carried down circularly slightly below the center line of the carbon, so that there is a resilient grasping action upon the carbon when it is rotated into the solid straight-line position shown in Fig. 7 (see also Figs. 3 and As above stated, the construction thus described also applies, according to similar reference numerals, to the socket 19 of the holder 5|. In both instances, the diameters of the carbons 31 and 3| are the same as the shanks El and 15 respectively.

Also there are cut-away flat bearing portions shown at numerals 89 which are continuous between the respective carbons and the shanks of their holders, which are not subject to interference when sliding along in the V-notches of the Thus there is presented no interference to sliding the carbon from the position shown in Fig. 8 to the position shown in Fig. 1, that is, the socket 19 may slide right on through the notches 29 and 41 without raising the carbon and without interfering with smooth coaxial movement. Fig. 9 on its upper side shows how one supporting line of slide is continuous.

Heretofore, the feed on carbons needed to be stopped before the ends of the holders reached the V-notches 29 or 4|, and the result was a large waste of carbon material. By means of the present invention, instead of throwing away about 2 of carbon on the negative carbon 31, only about is thrown away. A corresponding saving is made in the case of the positive carbon 3!. They can be burned close down to their ends.

After the carbons have burned down, reloading is easily accomplished by moving the holders 33 from their respective clamping means 61 and I3, rotating out the carbon stubs and rotating in the new pieces (Fig. 7), after which the holders are reclamped. Then when the carbons are released they gravitate into their positions in the notches 4| and 29 (Fig. 8), so as to be slidable back and forth along with their holder shanks El and 15.

It will be seen from Figs. 3 and 5 that the essentials of the invention are the simplicity with which carbons are held in their holders while providing a continuous sliding action between the carbons and their respective holder shanks of equal diameters. This permits of sliding each carbon back and forth without any raising due to socket 19. In other words, each holder 19 is cut back by planes 9! so that coaxial side elements on its carbon and on its shank (Si or 15) slide on a V-support (Fig. 9), without interference by the holder portion 19.

A function of the finger 83 is to hold the carbon stiff and prevent angling down when it is held out on its outer end as indicated in Fig. 8. This finger is long enough to reach to a point beyond the ordinary chamfer portion on the rear ends of carbons, as indicated by the dotted lines in Fig. 7.

The holder is preferably made of brass which, I have found, does not tend to fuse with the cop per sheath of the carbon when the carbon burns down to a point near the holder.

Advantages of the invention are continuous coaxial feed of the carbons down to close to their ends without lateral carbon movement which would distort the are at point S. Another advantage is the provision of holders which are small, economical, and which do not interfere with the proper gathering and projection of the light rays from the light source S by means of the mirror ordinarily used, but not shown.

In view of the above, it will be seen that the several objects of the invention are achieved and other advantageous results attained.

As .many changes could be made in the above constructions without departing from the scope of the invention, it is intended that all matter contained in the above description or shown in the accompanying drawing shall be interpreted as illustrative and not in a limiting sense.

I claim:

1. A carbon holder for cylindric carbons comprising a cylindric shank of .a diameter equal to the carbon diameter, a socket for one end .of the carbon, said socket comprising a curved portion having an are at least greater than to'resiliently receive the .carbon, and a shorter finger portion opposite said curved portion providing a fulcrum whereby the carbon may be angled into resilient engagement under the'curved'portion.

2. A carbon holder for cylindric carbons comprising a cylindric shank of substantially equal diameter, a cylindrically hollow socket portion, said socket portion being composed of an upper elongate hood for resiliently receiving the carbon and a lower shorter finger, saidsocket portion being provided with a plurality of tangent planes between the hood and the finger to provide for the substantially unimpeded sliding action of a V-support between the carbon and said shank,

and oppositely located openings between said finger and hood to provide for free angular entry of one end of the carbon and subsequent rotation upon the finger as a fulcrum and into position within said hood.

3. A carbon holder comprising a cylindric shank having substantially the same diameter as the carbon to be held, a holder portion on the end of said shank having a cylindric socket of a diameter substantially equal to that of the shank to receive said equal diametered carbon, said holder portion being formed as an upper hood and a lower shorter finger to provide a fulcrum for angling the carbon into position in the hood, and a pair of angled cut-away portions formed as tangents to the shank and the carbon for resting upon a V-support.

CLARENCE F. KLAMM. 

